When you tell people that you are a web developer they start to see you as a different person. You'll get questions like, "Why isn't my Wi-Fi working" or "Can you tell me the best website for cheese". It can get pretty hilarious when the non-techy people around you start to think you're a master of the internet and all the things it holds.
Once you reveal your web development powers, your life will change in the most interesting ways.
You now know how to fix computer problems.
It doesn't matter if you've never worked with anything more complex than a flash drive. Once people know you work with computers in some form, you'll become the go to person for all computer problems. Be ready to explain to people that you aren't sure why their mouse isn't working or what happened to that folder they needed.
Although you will start to learn some of the answers to these questions if you have enough friends, family, and co-workers ask you repeatedly. Soon you might actually know how to fix computer problems.
You control the internet.
Web developers make websites so that means they control them all, right? Someone might even ask you why Netflix is down or if you can speed it up. After you explain to them a few times that you can't get access to every website they'll back off for a while.
Then something else will pop up and you'll have another random question about a website you don't even know about. The good thing is that you'll be able to explain servers and cyber security to them and they will both learn something new and go tell more people about it.
You are tech support.
This is especially true if you work for a smaller company that lumps I.T. and software together. So don't be surprised when someone comes to you freaking out about the network being down. Also, don't be surprised when they get a little irritated if you have no idea what to do about it.
Get ready to answer user questions about the web app you're building while you are working on bugs that will fix the problems they are griping about. Get ready to sharpen those critical people skills because this is the time that they will grow the most.
I know some of these things sound ridiculous, but you'd be surprised by the questions people ask. Not everybody is tech savvy and most of the time they'll appreciate it when you explain stuff to them without being condescending.
Hopefully you got a few chuckles out of this. What are some of the weirdest, most non web development related questions you've gotten because people know you write some sort of code? People make the assumption that I'm a hacker just because they saw some JavaScript in a black IDE. It's easier to go along with them sometimes.
Hey! You should follow me on Twitter because reasons: https://twitter.com/FlippedCoding
Top comments (52)
"Can you hack my friend's Facebook account?"
No.
My girlfriend asked me this once, I sat her down explained why it was impossible, why no one in our whole campus can't do it and how phishing, theft of credentials and social engineering are mistaken for actual facebook hacks
Twice this month. Both my own family asking about gf/bf
I've got this before... :|
I charge them 50 bucks, then print out the olds 10 posts :D.
Evil. That person probably deserved it though (Hacking peoples accounts isn't a nice thing to do or ask of someone else).
A few months ago a random person from one IRC channel asked me (PM) for help with hacking her bf IM account…
"I have a mobile app idea, similar to Facebook, it will buzz! Can you develop it for tomorrow ?"
'I have an idea for Uber-for-dog-walking' - them
'Oh yea? How much market research, advertising, business plan, and funding do you have?'- me
'none' - them
'go away' - me
Haha exactly !
I HATE this the MOST!
Yup, I can, just give me million dollars in cash this evening :)
I wrongly assume rather different things about web developers -- e.g., that they can figure out how to install Ubuntu in a VM, or that they have at least a basic understanding of how operating systems work.
Maybe an article about what they should know, but often don't.
Maybe an article on snarky ops nerds being twats instead of shipping an ova
Yes, usually a web developer can do all of that, but he or she is not an expert on those subjects.
I was told to set up an old computer in my church. It took me a while because the hardware was very old. I installed Ubuntu SE. I rebuild everything to hide the administration from non saby users, installed a couple more applications and even the basic servers to start a website. At the end, I was proud of my work, but they were not happy because it wasn't Windows. Well, the machine came with Windows 98 and it wasn't ready for internet. I even bought a wireless adapter with my own money.
At the end, I told them that I wasn't a technician, but a developer. And to then, their idea was that I wasn't professional.
All the work and even free.
To many, if you are not an technician that can solve their problem, whatever it may be, you don't know what you are doing.
That might be an extremely long article 😂
Next time, open this: hackertyper.net rattle out some kernel code by mashing the keyboard, then hit Alt 3 times, or CapsLock 3 times. Enjoy :)
My family has absolutely no idea of what I am doing all the day.
I don't know how to explain it to them.
And they keep asking me to get their internet box to work.
I wish I could go back in time and tell them I work at the post office...
😂😂😂😂
Remember that as you (web developers) are more technically sophisticated than people asking you for this kind of stuff, you are usually able to check whether the site is down just for them or for everyone, know how to troubleshoot a WiFi connection and install gentoo. If your family/friends asked you for this kind of favor, you shouldn’t refuse, but try to explain to them how to find this option to make them just a bit more technically sophisticated… And give them a link to xkcd/627
The heart is for your final sentence. 😂
Using terminal totally freaks out my family. Most hilarious phrase was - 'Are you hacking NASA? But yes my friend, you are right, if you working with computer you instantly become
the wizardthat can do magic others can't.So here i am ... talking about this.
im working right now at an media company, im the only guy who knows html.
All this problems that you mention above is true and i felt related to that until i talk to my boss and... they read some Union status and responsabilities, but they mistaken the job, there were reading the IT status and i told them.. " so , where in this status said that i'm a programmer". they didn't knew what to do.
Sounds like you have plenty of opportunity ahead of you to make things better :)
I been here for 8 years aprox, the first years where good, now is horrible. do you have a job? :P
As a matter of fact, yes. I can speed up web pages by blocking certain resources, which requires some knowledge of the web to know what to block and what not to block.
I'm a programmer. I write programs. I know things about algorithms, programming paradigms and patterns, etc. Yet I cannot visit my grandparents without having to troubleshoot something with either their TV, the video editing program or some other electronic device that has little to nothing to do with my actual job description.
In peoples heads:
Programmer == Someone who's good with computersFrom my sister (who should know better). {National ISP} says it could take 2 weeks for my business to get internet connection, what can you do?
I called her to find she thought us nerds were jealously guarding wires with internet communications which we'd presumably been presented with by someone with a beard and a pot belly.
At first I said "I'll send Kieran up the M6 with the wire" but instead of laugh she simply asked how long it would take for him to walk 150 miles (I guess assuming the wire was weightless???)
As a developer who has a background in tech support, network engineering, phone systems, applications..etc,etc... Those things are just not my job anymore. Our most hated word at my job is "glitch" which is uneliversal for "it doesn't do what I want so it's glitched'.
Why the simple app need budget of $100,000+? people on freelance websites offer it only for $50-$200.
"My bank website isn't showing my recent transfer, can you fix that?!" facepalm
Oh God the tech support one...someone once said that because I work with stuff on the internet, I could somehow fix and setup their cable for them. All I wound up doing was calling the company and asking for help, the same thing anyone else would do.
I guess that actually applies to a lot of professions. Before I was full-time developer, I studied electrical engineering and people thought I’m a an electrician and can fix their power sockets. When I told them that I work for Bosch they asked me if I can fix their washing machine.
And honestly, I’ve done the same. When I talk to a lawyer, I’d probably ask them about any sort of legal question that they have no idea about because they work in a diffferent branch.
😉
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